Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-03-20
CHAPTER Y.
UIE ANNALS.

III kllC hA0NSAN VI AAA@N
cessary TO note various minor influences
that shaped her destiny. In those minor
inhences there will be much that is une-
ventful. Events enough will come, how
ever.
Shirley had been taught to think. She
learned that from her father and her
teacher. She was of this nature too: II
she saw a wrong or a mistake, she thought
first of all, Cannot this wrong and this mis-
take be righted?
If she set about any weak she considered
within herself, How could it he done in the
hest way? Having thus considered, she
spared no labor or trouble to accomplish it
in that way. She had learned this also
from the two wise friends who walked with
her no more.
A genius is one who can do all things
well. Whatever Shirley undertook, though
it we're no more than the planting ont OF a
rose tree, she did it better than the com
mon run.
So it was with her school. From pa
rents on one side TO pupils on the other she
found fronting her a jungle OF self COM
placent ignorance. To turn the jungle into
"A garden of civilizatiOn-this was the task
that lay before her.
Her work in the school was so remark
able that its solid results remain to tins
dav. long after-well, long after what was
to happen did happen. TO this day her
old pupils tell, with tears gathering IN
their eyes, how much they owe to Shirley
CarstOne. .
Her school was like her lite, light and
shadow. At first she reused i'll will some
times. But by degrees the little mudheads
were warmed and thrilled by her OverpOw-
ering enthusiasm. The great mudheads at
home felt the glow, till the whole mass
was melted aud nodded under her hand.
She recognised that book coming was a
small part of education. To train and
equip the child at every point where his
after life will touch that of his fellow man,
this was to educate him. The pure, sweet
home life of the stone house in the days
that were vanished was like a guiding star
to the girl in her work. She sought to
teach the rude boys in her charge to he
gentle and knightly, rs her father had
laugh her brothers.
The singing of the Carstone children had
DGtn Tue luNl tl vi I4tti"O'u III NhS OA'
happy days. Their mother had taught them
singing, aud had taken the greatest pains
with them. 1t bad been her delight to
assemble them in the evening for what she
called a family concert. Faults she bounced
upon with a wOuld-be iron like severity
that made the children laugh ut their gen
tie mother, while they Obeyed her. Did
they sound a harsh or false note? She
wrapped them to stop, with an awful trown.
There, now - she said. whine
through your hoses, do" lt'ssO musical
Mrs. CarstOne had been an enthusiast
about her children'S singing. Under her
watchtul, loving training, their music be
came grateful to the ear and melOdious as
bird songs.
She taught them to read alOud, too. "A
good reader is rarcr in America than good
president" Colonel Carstone had been ac-
cust0med to tell his children. There might
be some presidents among the lot, perhaps,
but at any rate he meant there should be
several good readers. SO the pretty mother,
with her sweet, clear voice aud correct in-
donations started reading school among the
poung ones. Here, too, she was quite crit.
cal, rs with their singing. With Tom she
had the most trouble. She mimicked him
numerically.
Your vvice sounds like the rafting Of
beans in 4 pod. Here you 90! Listen!'
All this came indelibly back to Shirley,
when she became Il teacher oil her own ac-
count. She smiled t. herself sadly "a she
found herself repeating the very express
SiOnS she had heard from her mothers lips.
Shirley CarStOne never gave up anything
she undertook. In time her pupils learned.
Their young voices took on clear cut, re-
fined tones, which distinguished them
from the ordinary country side children as
though they had been OF n different race.
strangers after a while came from far and
near to hear the singing and reading in
Shirley's school. 1t was natures W
melody.
Another point OF especial concern with
Colonel CarStone had been that his chill
dren should learn to speak correctly. Him
self and wife, both highly cultivated per-
sous, had had their lot in life cost in thu
crude, unlettered community OF LinwOOd.
1t happened so and they could not change
it. But he determined at least that his
Children'S voices should not glide into the
flat, OdiOus dialect of the average unCul-
tured American. To this end so many
hours were devoted each week to language
lessons. Colonel CarstOne himself took
charge OF these. Mistakes in his Childrcn's
speech were carefully noted aud corrected.
The regular language lesson brought much
merTiment among the yOung ones and their
papa.
The father adhered rigidly to his plan as
long rs he lived. The daughter uncOn-
s~clously adopted it in her school and chung
to it.
There was vet one more matter on which
this accomplished gentleman laid great
stress. That WAS home ~potiteness. lie
declared that home was exactly the place
10 practice the highest politencss one
knew.
Its the place where politeness is most
needed" he told his family. IF you wish
to be az ease and graceful, you must learn
to be at ease and graceful at home. Prac-
tice the hest manner you know constantly,
50 as to make il your own n Then
you will never know anything else"
He was as good as his word, too. He
was rs chivalrouS and delerential to his
wife down to the last OF his life as if she
had been one of her own pretty lady friends.
So notable was this in the rustic neigh
bOrhOOd in which they lived that Jim
Sweet was moved to remark TO Mis- Simp-
kinS:
BE COLL dinged if | ever seed a man like
C~arStone! He's m%annerdly to his own wife.
He's as perlite to her rs if he wuzn't mar
Tied to her.
He is, ishe?n retorted the peppery gro
Ger wife. We'll, all I've got to say is that
he's a show in these parts. He ought TO
be locked up in a glass case and toted
around the country with the circus, ten
cents a sight,''
Shirley's father had been gracious and
c~ourtley to all the world. He was a man
who was polite to his own children. he
saw ahead of his generation. The new and
better educational theories which are only
now slowly making their way among
thoughtful men and women he perceived
long before, and put into practice. His
children's harmonious development was so